Japan stocks fall, with some Apple affiliates hit

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese stocks traded down early Thursday, with exporters weighing on the market as the yen remained near its highs of the week and trade data showed an almost 6% drop in December exports from a year earlier. The Nikkei Stock Average
NIK, +0.30%
lost 0.2% to trade at 10,464.20, while the broader Topix fell 0.5%. Among exporters losing ground, Sony Corp.
6758, -1.45%SNE, -2.64%
fell 1.6%, Renesas Electronics Corp.
6723, +3.35%RNECY, +1.84%
lost 2.1%, Honda Motor Co.
7267, +1.53%HMC, +7.30%
retreated 1% and Nissan Motor Co.
7201, +1.01%NSANY, +0.47%
gave up 1.4%. Almost flat earnings and a disappointing forecast from Apple Inc.
AAPL, -0.87%
helped send Softbank Corp.
9984, -0.20%SFTBF, -0.58%
-- a Japanese carrier of the iPhone -- down 0.9%, while Sharp Corp.
6753, +0.00%SHCAF, -11.43%
and Foster Electric Co.
6794, +4.81%
-- which make parts for the phone -- dropped 1.5% and 1%, respectively. On the upside, Toshiba Corp.
6502, +2.87%TOSYY, +3.36%
rose 0.6% after a Nikkei news report saying it was set to start talks with General Electric Co.
GE, -0.08%
over a possible fossil-fuel power equipment joint venture.

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